Hi, all --

I've just dived in to Poser with 6.0 and am just a bit confused by a few things.  I've been producing material with Carrara and RayDream for years, but needed some quick and cool human characters for a project; hence the jump.

So, P6 comes with various figures.  I've bought some figures and am happy with what's going on.  I can't quite figure out compatibility, though.

Say I want to put a sword in Hiro's hand.  If I have a smart prop of a sword, will it automatically connect to the hand?  What if I want to put that same sword into James' hand?  Or Michael3? 

What's compatible with what, I guess is my question.

Any basic guidance would be most appreciated!

Thanks very much,

Dex

A smart prop is simply a parented object. If you load it and "his" parent isn't there, it is loaded like any standard property. You may parent the prop to any other figure or prop in your scene. You can save it then as a smart prop for the new parent.

Danke sehr for the reply.  Would I be able to parent an object to a particular part of a character?  Say, I model a magic wand and want to have it stick to Hiro's hand, can I parent it to Hiro's hand?  Or does it parent to Hiro and then I have to adjust it's placement with x, y and z translation? 

I have another question about Hiro, in particular which I'll post in a new thread.

Thanks!

Dex

You can parent a prop to any part of a figure. Fore xample a ring would be parented to the finger you wanted. Earings to the head, etc.

If you load a prop that was smart proped for a different figure, for example a sword parented to M3's hand loaded onto Hiro. The sword will still be parented to the hand but you will most likely have to adjust it's position a bit, in order to compensate for differences in the characters' sizes.

Quote - Would I be able to parent an object to a particular part of a character?  Say, I model a magic wand and want to have it stick to Hiro's hand, can I parent it to Hiro's hand?  Or does it parent to Hiro and then I have to adjust it's placement with x, y and z translation?

If I understand you correctly you're asking if a new part you've modeled wil automagically jump to the right place in Hiro's hand if you parent it to the hand.

In that case, the answer is no. You will have to move it to where it should be (with the character in the default T-pose) and then parent it. So a magic wand would be X, Y and Z-translated out to the palm of the hand, rotated slightly (beware of Gimbal lock here) and then parented. That is assuming the prop is made so that it loads at 0.0.0 - in the middle of the scene. You CAN model it and move it to the right spot in the modeler, you could bring in Hiro to whatever program you use and place the wand there, then export and in THAT  case all you would need to do is to parent it. :o)

Great info, folks.  Thanks!